Factors Affecting the Relationship Between The Research System and Research Users: An American View For an Italian Audience

Description: What is the best configuration or relationship for disaster or mass emergency planning between the scientific research system and the administration system (or research users as they are called in the United States)? This is a question that has been asked and answered in some way at the present time in perhaps two dozen countries around the world. The answer or the relationship that has been suggested and in some cases actually institutionalized varies somewhat from one nation to another. There are at least four reasons for this variation in the possible relationship between the research system and the administrative system. They are: 1). Differences in the social structures of different societies; 2) differences in what different countries include under disaster planning; 3) differences in whether an agent specific or a generic approach is taken to disaster planning; and 4) differences in the social science capability and disaster knowledge base in different societies.